Six killed as policemen set ablaze in Baghdad

BAGHDAD: Two policemen were shot dead and their bodies set ablaze at a Baghdad checkpoint on Saturday while three of their colleagues and an anti-al Qaeda fighter were also killed, security officials said.

Insurgents shot the two policemen as they sat in their car in eastern Baghdad, the capital’s security leaders said, and then set it on fire, while three others were killed by silenced pistols at a checkpoint in the west of the city.

Saturday’s incident was the third time in two weeks that members of the security forces’ bodies have been burned after being killed by insurgents.

Meanwhile, in al Shaab district northeast of Baghdad, a member of the government-backed Sahwa (Awakening) militia was shot dead at a checkpoint, an interior ministry official said, and two other fighters wounded.

The Sahwa, known in the US military as the “Sons of Iraq,” sided with the US against al Qaeda from late 2006.

Dozens of former Sunni rebels have been killed in apparent revenge attacks in recent months.

The latest unrest comes at the beginning of Ramazan, when insurgents typically step up their attacks.

The violence has fuelled concerns about security as the US pulls out thousands of troops from Iraq, although US officers insist Iraqi soldiers and police are up to the task.

Iraq is also grappling with a five-month-long political impasse after a March 7 parliamentary election failed to produce a new government.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 15^th, 2010.